Anna May Wong
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| Anna May Wong | |
|---|---|
| Image:Annamaywong.jpg Anna May Wong in Princess Turandot, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1937 | |
| Birth name | Wong Liu Tsong |
| Born | January 3 1905 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | February 2 1961 (aged 56) (heart attack) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 2, 1961) was the first notable Chinese American Hollywood actress.
Contents |
[edit] Career
Born Wong Liu Tsong (Chinese: 黃柳霜; pinyin: Huáng Liǔshuāng) in Los Angeles, California, a daughter of a laundryman, she began playing bit parts as a teenager in the early days of Hollywood. Wong's first role was in Alla Nazimova's silent film The Red Lantern (1919) as an uncredited extra. However, even with associations with a Hollywood power like Nazimova, her ethnicity prevented her from getting choice parts. Though her family had been in California since 1855, as a Chinese-American, Wong was considered "foreign" both through social prejudices of the time, and by law. Anti-miscegenation laws existed in California until 1948.[1]
Hollywood films of the silent era and early 1930s pre-code era sometimes flouted the more conservative social mores of the time, but these restrictions were codified when the studios adopted the Hays Code in 1930, and began enforcing it in 1934. Wong's career was especially affected by the anti-miscegenation rules in the Code, since they prevented her from playing romantic roles with non-Asian actors. When MGM was casting for The Good Earth (1937), she was passed up for the lead female role of O-lan because Paul Muni, an actor of European descent, was to play Wang Lung, O-lan's husband. Even though Muni was to wear heavy make up to look Asian, industry regulations prevented her from playing romantic roles opposite actors of different ethnicity. Instead, the role Wong hoped for went to Luise Rainer. MGM offered Wong the part of Lotus, but Wong refused to be the only Chinese American playing the only negative character, stating: "...I won't play the part. If you let me play O-lan, I'll be very glad. But you're asking me - with Chinese blood - to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters."
Despite this discrimination, she had a number of significant film roles. Her first starring role was in Hollywood's first color movie, The Toll of the Sea (1921) opposite Kenneth Harlan. Anna May travelled throughout Europe, and was one of the leads in the British film Piccadilly (1929). In Java Head (1934) she starred opposite actor John Loder as a Chinese princess married to a 19th-century English gentleman.
She also made films in German and French. In addition, she co-starred with Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932) and with Lana Turner in Portrait in Black (1960), though she typically earned far less than her billing would indicate. For her work in Shanghai Express, in which Dietrich and Wong played a pair of prostitutes, she received $6,000 while Dietrich salary was more than $78,000. Many critics, however, believed that she stole the film from Dietrich with her intense performance, despite playing a supporting role, and the two actresses never worked together again. She toured extensively on the stage throughout Europe and the U.S., including opposite Vincent Price in Princess Turandot , a stage version of Giacomo Puccini's opera.
In the early 1950s, she starred in her own television series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (using her birth name for the title character).
[edit] Personal life
Wong never married, largely because of the Chinese custom of the time for a wife to stay at home, coupled with miscegnation laws, though she reportedly was a mistress of film director Marshall Neilan, among others. British writer and broadcasting executive Eric Maschwitz was also romantically linked to her, while working in Hollywood, and the lyrics of These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You) are evocative of his longing for her after they parted and he returned to England.
As an adult, her religion was Christian Science.[2]
She died at 56 from a heart attack while battling liver cirrhosis in Santa Monica, California. Her cremated remains were interred in her mother's gravesite at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, anonymous and unmarked nearly 47 years later. [3]
She was a cousin of cinematographer James Wong Howe.
[edit] Legacy
In 2003–2004, two biographies and a book on her career appeared, and extremely comprehensive retrospectives of her films were held at both the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York City (the latter in 2005).
Anna May Wong: A Complete Guide to Her Film, Stage, Radio and Television Work was written by Philip Leibfried and Chei Mi Lane. Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend by Graham Russell Hodges made reference to her statement that she "died a thousand deaths." This quote is sometimes attributed to her believing in reincarnation, but others have indicated it was a wry observation on her characters dying at the end of films.
For her contribution to the film industry, Anna May Wong was given a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1708 Vine Street. She is also depicted larger than life as one of the four supporting pillars of the "Gateway to Hollywood" sculpture located on the southeast corner of Hollywood Bl. and La Brea Ave.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
| 1960 | Portrait in Black | Tawny | |
| 1949 | Impact | Su Lin | |
| 1943 | Bombs Over Burma | Lin Ying | |
| 1942 | Lady from Chungking | Kwan Mei | |
| 1941 | Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery | Lois Ling | |
| 1939 | Island of Lost Men | Kim Ling | |
| King of Chinatown | Dr. Mary Ling | ||
| 1938 | When Were You Born | Mei Lei Ming (Aquarius) | |
| Dangerous to Know | Lan Ying | ||
| 1937 | Daughter of Shanghai | Lan Ying Lin | |
| 1934 | Limehouse Blues | Tu Tuan | |
| Tiger Bay | Lui Chang | ||
| Java Head | Princess Taou Yuen | ||
| Chu Chin Chow | Zahrat | ||
| 1933 | A Study in Scarlet | Mrs. Pyke | |
| 1932 | Shanghai Express | Hui Fei | |
| 1931 | Daughter of the Dragon | Princess Ling Moy | |
| 1930 | The Flame of Love | Hai-Tang | |
| 1929 | Piccadilly | Shosho | |
| 1928 | Show Life | Song | |
| Chinatown Charlie | Mandarin's Sweetheart | ||
| Across to Singapore | Singapore Woman | ||
| The Crimson City | Su | ||
| 1927 | Streets of Shanghai | Su Quan | |
| The Devil Dancer | Sada | ||
| The Chinese Parrot | Nautch Dancer | ||
| Why Girls Love Sailors | Delamar | Scenes Deleted | |
| Old San Francisco | A Flower of the Orient | ||
| The Honorable Mr. Buggs | Baroness Stoloff | ||
| Mr. Wu | Loo Song | ||
| Driven from Home | |||
| 1926 | The Desert's Toll | Oneta | |
| The Silk Bouquet | Dragon Horse | ||
| A Trip to Chinatown | Ohati | ||
| Fifth Avenue | Nan Lo | ||
| 1925 | His Supreme Moment | Harem Girl in play | |
| Forty Winks | Annabelle Wu | ||
| 1924 | Peter Pan | Tiger Lily | |
| The Alaskan | Keok | ||
| The Fortieth Door | Zira | ||
| The Thief of Bagdad | The Mongol Slave | ||
| Lilies of the Field | |||
| 1923 | Thundering Dawn | Honky-Tonk Girl | |
| Drifting | Rose Li | ||
| 1922 | The Toll of the Sea | Lotus Flower | |
| 1921 | Bits of Life | Toy Sing, Chin Chow's Wife | |
| Shame | Lotus Blossom | ||
| The First Born | |||
| Dinty | uncredited | ||
| 1919 | The Red Lantern | uncredited |
[edit] Television
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
| 1961 | The Barbara Stanwyck Show | A-hsing | Episode: Dragon By the Trail |
| 1960 | The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp | China Mary | Episode: China Mary |
| 1959 | Adventures in Paradise | Episode: The Lady from South Chicago | |
| 1956,1958 | Climax! | Clerk Mayli | Episode: The Chinese Game Episode: The Deadly Tattoo |
| 1956 | Producers' Showcase | Chinese Woman | Episode: The Letter |
| 1951 | The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong | Mme. Lui-Tsong |
[edit] References
- ^ Shizue Seigel, George Kich, Ph.D. and Randall Senzaki. Significant Events Affecting Intermarriage and Interracial People, adapted from the National Japanese American Historical Society publication Nikkei Heritage. kqed.org (public broadcasting in northern California).
- ^ Barrie Roberts. Anna May Wong Daughter of the Orient. classicimages.com.
- ^ Hodges, Graham/Anna May Wong, FromLaundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend/ISBN 1-4039-6790-3
[edit] External links
- THE ANNA MAY WONG SOCIETYMembership and Crossroads open October 31, 2007
- "The World of Anna May Wong" fan site at MySpace
- Anna May Wong at the Internet Movie Database
- Anna May Wong at the Internet Broadway Database
- Anna May Wong at Silent Era People
- Anna May Wong Photo Galleries at Silent Ladies & Gents
- Anna May Wong Tobacco Cards at Virtual History
- Corliss, Richard. (2005). "Anna May Wong Did It Right" at Time Online.
de:Anna May Wong es:Anna May Wong nl:Anna May Wong ja:アンナ・メイ・ウォン ru:Анна Мэй Вонг fi:Anna May Wong zh:黄柳霜
